# Heartfelt beads not working?



## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Ok, guys, I need help. I bought a humidor and seasoned it by placing a bowl of distilled water in it and letting it sit in there for about 5 days. The humidor is this size: (*10 5/16"W x 8 3/4"D x 4 5/16"H*).
I bought a (*Medium 70% Rh (BLACK Cap*) Heartfelt Beads Humidity Tube) from them and I took them out of the tube and placed them in a plastic bowl with no cover and placed them in the humidor. I have probably about 6 or 7 cigars in the humidor. I can't seem to keep the RH at or near 70%, it's about at 61%-64%. My question is, did I get a too small tube? Should I have gotten a bigger one, or could it be because I didn't season it enough and the moisture is being sucked up by the wood? Thanks in advanced.


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## Rondo (Sep 9, 2015)

Did you moisten the beads?


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Rondo said:


> Did you moisten the beads?


Oh, ya, probably should have mentioned that, yes, I took about 25% of them out and set them aside, then I spritzed the others with DW, let them sit for a minute or two to dry out and placed the dry ones in the bowl with them.


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## Rondo (Sep 9, 2015)

What kind oh humidor is it? Pics would help. 
Did you do the dollar bill test? I'm a Tupperdor guy, but I believe seasoning can take up to two weeks.


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Rondo said:


> What kind oh humidor is it? Pics would help.
> Did you do the dollar bill test? I'm a Tupperdor guy, but I believe seasoning can take up to two weeks.


It's one I got from CI as a starter kit. Dollar bill test was good and also the flashlight test. I've tried a tupperware and the RH shoots to like 85%.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Like @Rondo said passive seasoning takes a couple weeks. The wood is Sucking up the moisture from the beads. What was the rh when you put the beads in?


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

When you say spritz, how generously did you do it. Remember beads are clear when charged and opaque when dry. If you're going to keep 25% dry don't worry about over saturating the rest. The dry ones will even things out. Also, six cigars in that size box means that the're a lot of dead air which could throw the RH reading off. Lastly 61%-64% RH isn't too bad, so no need to panic yet. Just add some more water and you should be good. 

P.S. When doing the whole half wet and half dry technique, you need to place the wet beads on the opposite side of the humi of the dry ones. This creates a passive humidity flow through osmosis from one end to the other and more evenly humidifies your cigars in between the two containers. 2:


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Regiampiero said:


> When you say spritz, how generously did you do it. Remember beads are clear when charged and opaque when dry. If you're going to keep 25% dry don't worry about over saturating the rest. The dry ones will even things out. Also, six cigars in that size box means that the're a lot of dead air which could throw the RH reading off. Lastly 61%-64% RH isn't too bad, so no need to panic yet. Just add some more water and you should be good.
> 
> P.S. When doing the whole half wet and half dry technique, you need to place the wet beads on the opposite side of the humi of the dry ones. This creates a passive humidity flow through osmosis from one end to the other and more evenly humidifies your cigars in between the two containers. 2:


I had a spray bottle and sprayed it a couple times, shook the bowl a little to get them all wet, they were all clear, wiped the excess off from the bowl and placed it in the humi. The dry ones i placed in a bowl in the humi, kinda on the same side, so I'll try placing on opposite sides. I was wondering if the separate bowls would be ok?


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Over thinking seems to run rampant when it comes to seasoning boxes. Put your sticks in some Tupperware with your beads for a week or so. Leave the bowl of dw in your humi for the week. The rh should be in the upper 70s by then. Take the dw out ,put the beads in the box. Wait a day or 2 til the rh settles. Put in your sticks. I'd also advise a small piece of Tupperware to take up the dead space. 
Cigar storage isn't rocket surgery. Just takes a little patience. If you want to make life even easier spring for a few 65% 4oz boveda packs when it's seasoned. Toss em in and walk away. You'll need the space soon enough anyway. 

No worries brother just keep it simple. Above all it's a hobby to aid in relaxation ,not add to your daily frustrations.


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

UBC03 said:


> Over thinking seems to run rampant when it comes to seasoning boxes. Put your sticks in some Tupperware with your beads for a week or so. Leave the bowl of dw in your humi for the week. The rh should be in the upper 70s by then. Take the dw out ,put the beads in the box. Wait a day or 2 til the rh settles. Put in your sticks. I'd also advise a small piece of Tupperware to take up the dead space.
> Cigar storage isn't rocket surgery. Just takes a little patience. If you want to make life even easier spring for a few 65% 4oz boveda packs when it's seasoned. Toss em in and walk away. You'll need the space soon enough anyway.
> 
> No worries brother just keep it simple. Above all it's a hobby to aid in relaxation ,not add to your daily frustrations.


Yes, I agree with the overthinking!! LOL
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I love forums like these.


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## selpo (Nov 4, 2015)

If your Rh in a tupperdor is 85% and it is 61-64% in your humidor with the same HF beads, then your humidor is not seasoned yet.

Like others have said, give enough time for the humidor to season before you load up your sticks....

... And do not open the humidor every 30 min to check the Rh:wink2:


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

abbysdad2006 said:


> Yes, I agree with the overthinking!! LOL
> Thanks for the advice, everyone. I love forums like these.


R-E-L-A-X....don't turn you're hobby into another job. 
That goes for all the new guys/gals diving down the rabbit hole.

It's nice because yunz have forums to fall back on, and ask any questions you can think of and get almost immediate answers. I had a couple old guys that bought Marsh Wheelings by the five pack guiding me . It was all trial and error. More error than I care to remember.


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

I will season the humi again and see what happens. I do like the idea of a tupperdor, though. You can see right through it and not have to worry about opening it up, I do have a tendency of opening it up quite often. If I were to leave the beads in the Tupperware, eventually the RH would even out, correct?


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

abbysdad2006 said:


> I will season the humi again and see what happens. I do like the idea of a tupperdor, though. You can see right through it and not have to worry about opening it up, I do have a tendency of opening it up quite often. If I were to leave the beads in the Tupperware, eventually the RH would even out, correct?


Yes, but it would be slower. I'd just put a bowl of water with a new sponge or paper towel. It works better and faster.


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Regiampiero said:


> Yes, but it would be slower. I'd just put a bowl of water with a new sponge or paper towel. It works better and faster.


Not sure what you mean by this?


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## selpo (Nov 4, 2015)

Regiampiero said:


> Yes, but it would be slower. I'd just put a bowl of water with a new sponge or paper towel. It works better and faster.


This advice is for your Humidor, not your tupperdor...

And yes, the Rh will eventually normalize but since the Tupperdor is airtight, it may take a long time and during that time, your cigars will be wet..

If you are going to use the same HF beads in a tupperdor, leave the beads out for a few days to dry them out before placing them in a tupperdor, provided ambient humidity is less than 70%


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

abbysdad2006 said:


> Not sure what you mean by this?


The key to release water into the air i the form of humidity is by evaporation. The formula for how much water will evaporate has two main variable, temperature and surface area. Given that you're not placing boiling water in the humidor you have to increase the surface area of the water instead. Placing a sponge (half or 1/4 submerged) pulls up water from the bowl through capillary action increasing the surface area of the water surface tremendously. This allows the water molecules from leaving their liquid state at a much lower energy state. Complicated enough? People might think this too complex, but its very simple and intuitive.

In essence by placing a sponge in a small bowl would be like placing a bowl 5 times that size in your humidor allowing for more water to evaporate. The same could be done with some paper towels.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

selpo said:


> This advice is for your Humidor, not your tupperdor...
> 
> And yes, the Rh will eventually normalize but since the Tupperdor is airtight, it may take a long time and during that time, your cigars will be wet..
> 
> If you are going to use the same HF beads in a tupperdor, leave the beads out for a few days to dry them out before placing them in a tupperdor, provided ambient humidity is less than 70%


Not sure if this is the right way ,but it's my way of drying out my beads. Hairdryer on low/warm. I do it in the spring when the humidity spikes.been doing it for years with no ill affects. I'll also say it may just be dumb luck that I haven't ruined them that way.


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

selpo said:


> This advice is for your Humidor, not your tupperdor...


Yes and also only for seasoning, not storage.


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

UBC03 said:


> Not sure if this is the right way ,but it's my way of drying out my beads. Hairdryer on low/warm. I do it in the spring when the humidity spikes.been doing it for years with no ill affects. I'll also say it may just be dumb luck that I haven't ruined them that way.


You can't ruin beads that's the beauty. They'll crack and crumble, but they'll still work. Actually they'll work better when they crack.


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Regiampiero said:


> The key to release water into the air i the form of humidity is by evaporation. The formula for how much water will evaporate has two main variable, temperature and surface area. Given that you're not placing boiling water in the humidor you have to increase the surface area of the water instead. Placing a sponge (half or 1/4 submerged) pulls up water from the bowl through capillary action increasing the surface area of the water surface tremendously. This allows the water molecules from leaving their liquid state at a much lower energy state. Complicated enough? People might think this too complex, but its very simple and intuitive.
> 
> In essence by placing a sponge in a small bowl would be like placing a bowl 5 times that size in your humidor allowing for more water to evaporate. The same could be done with some paper towels.


OK, i get it now, I think?! LOL. So I should place a bowl of DW with a sponge or some paper towels in the Humi for a while and place the sticks in the tupperdor with the beads. I'll do this tonight when i get home.


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## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

abbysdad2006 said:


> OK, i get it now, I think?! LOL. So I should place a bowl of DW with a sponge or some paper towels in the Humi for a while and place the sticks in the tupperdor with the beads. I'll do this tonight when i get home.


Correct! Although I didn't think you had a problem to begin with. You said that you're getting 61-64% (I keep my cigars around 62%-65%, so no worries there) after you removed the DW bowl and placed the cigars in, that means you just needed to cut the dead air given you only had six cigars in the humi. Its harder to keep RH stable with too much dead air, that's why us BOTL keep buying cigars. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. >

My suggestion is just place an empty sealed bowl in the humi and spray the beads one more time. Than when you buy more cigars, just remove the bowl has it was said.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

All in all. ..Breath ..let us know how it went. And remember NO PEEKING!


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Regiampiero said:


> Correct! Although I didn't think you had a problem to begin with. You said that you're getting 61-64% (I keep my cigars around 62%-65%, so no worries there) after you removed the DW bowl and placed the cigars in, that means you just needed to cut the dead air given you only had six cigars in the humi. Its harder to keep RH stable with too much dead air, that's why us BOTL keep buying cigars. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. >
> 
> My suggestion is just place an empty sealed bowl in the humi and spray the beads one more time. Than when you buy more cigars, just remove the bowl has it was said.


HA, OK, I'm over thinking. Thanks, guys


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## abbysdad2006 (Aug 10, 2015)

Update:
So , I sprayed the beads again the other day and the RH in the humi is slowly starting to climb. It's at about 65% this morning and the beads looked like they were starting to dry out a little so I spayed them again a little. Thanks for all the help.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

Glad it's workin out bro. ..keep breathin


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## azmadurolover (Apr 10, 2016)

UBC03 said:


> .
> Cigar storage isn't rocket surgery


or, for our Canadian brothers, rocket appliances, ricky..........


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